FARM DEPARTMENT. 261 



them to run to a stack of oat straw about three hours a day. The ensilage 

 was not injured by heating, but in digging down I find it spoiled in two 

 corners of the silo, perhaps a ton in each, by not being tramped down solid 

 when put in, and in the way I filled those corners contained mostly leaves 

 of the corn. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH ENSILAGE VS. CORN HARVESTED IN ORDIN ARY WAY. 



Is an acre of corn, put in the silo, worth more to feed cattle, than if cut 

 and dried in the ordinary way, feeding the grain and fodder in combination? 

 The experiment herewith reported was undertaken with the hope of securing 

 some information on this much mooted question. 



Last September one and a half acres of good ensilage corn, sowed thin in 

 the drill (of Hathaway and Hibbard varieties, seed mixed) and well eared, 

 was cut up when nicely glazed, weighed and put in our small silo. From 

 the one and a half acres 25,060 pounds of corn ensilage were obtained. One 

 and a half acres adjoining, and to all appearance equal in every respect, was 

 cut and shocked in the ordinary way. When dry, in October, the corn on 

 last named plat was husked and 5,310 pounds of fairly dry corn was obtained, 

 much of which was sound. The stalks were bound and. shocked and left 

 until fairly dried. When drawn to the barn and put away for winter feed- 

 ing they weighed 5,975 pounds. 



Five cows giving milk were placed on the east side of the experimental 

 barn and five dry cows in the stalls on the opposite side. 



Two of the milch cows were Shorthorns, two Holsteins and one Ayrshire. 

 Four of the dry cows were Shorthorns, the other a Devon. 



The following brief descriptions of the animals give some items necessary 

 for the best understanding of some points of the experiment: 



Phoenix 12th, Shorthorn, calved Nov. 12, 1877; last calf July 13, 1888. 



Lulu of Lansing, Ayrshire, calved Nov, 18, 1878; last calf May 12, 1888. 



College Phoenix 2d, Shorthorn, calved Nov. 7, 1885; last calf Sept. 15, 

 1888. 



Soutje, Holstein, calved Nov. 18, 1878; last calf April 2, 1888. Soutje 

 was dried off Feb. 28, and had been milked but once daily for a week before. 



College Mae, Holstein, calved Jane 3, 1884; last calf Oct. 2, 1888. 



Bonny Eed Kose 2d, Shorthorn, calved Oct. 12, 1874; last calf June 17, 

 1888. 



Crystal Queen 9th, Shorthorn, calved June 7, 187o ; last calf Jan. 5, 

 1888. 



Heroine, Shorthorn, calved March 18, 1876 ; last calf Jan. 5, 1888. 



Jennie Baldwin 2d, Shorthorn, calved Jan. 15, 1885; last calf Oct., 1888. 



Lovely 27oh, Devon, calved July, 1877; last calf May 14, 1888. 



After a week's preliminary feeding the experiment began Dec. 15, 1888. 

 Dried cornstalks were fed for a period of three weeks, then ensilage was 

 substituted for the dried fodder for three weeks, then returned to dried 

 fodder the third period, and then ensilage the fourth period, making two 

 periods each of three weeks for dried fodder and the same for ensilage. 



The dried fodder was run through the cutting-box; the corn was crushed 

 and the cob meal fed with the dried stalks, while an equal amount of bran 

 and two pounds of clover and timothy hay were fed daily with both dried 

 fodder and ensilage. Each ration was weighed, and whatever was left was 



